The Wall Street Journal reports,"copper fell for a ninth session, locking in the longest losing streak since December 1995.
You’ll be forgiven for missing it.
The current decline has featured exactly one interesting trading day–the 1.5% decline on Jan. 23 after data showing manufacturing in top consumer China contracted.
The market has drifted lower since, notching an average daily drop of 0.4% in low volume as Chinese traders packed up and eventually left for a weeklong holiday.
“It’s been more of a kind of erosion” than a dramatic selloff, said Stephen Platt, a futures strategist with Archer Financial Services. “Chinese demand is not coming on as strong as it once was, undermining the market.”
Traders say the looming absence of the market’s largest buyer helped drive the retreat, and could keep prices under pressure until markets there reopen on Thursday.
Granted, there’s nothing keeping a Chinese copper importer from picking up the phone to take advantage of the 5% drop in prices before then. But buyers may not yet see a bargain in the lower copper price.
Supply is set to exceed demand in the global copper market in 2014 for a second year, and traders may have to contend with a slowing China as well as questionable demand from emerging markets.
After today’s weaker U.S. manufacturing data, copper fell 0.4%, again, to $3.1835 a pound, a two-month low.
